Social Media Strategies for Job Hunting
By Miriam Slozberg- Social Media Manager and Consultant, Canada
Any job seeker believes that as long as you have a professionally written resume with a lot of great experience behind you, you will have no problem with finding a job. However because times are changing, along with technology, quite rapidly I may add- a beautifully written up resume filled up with not only great previous job experience but high quality education listed on there is not enough of a determining reason to think you will get hired on the spot.
While employers are still and always will look at your professionally written up resume, they are going to turn to other sources to determine whether you are worthy of being hired or not. That is, your social media profiles and online presence! Even if your resume is perfect, however your social media presence is far from it, that could be the very thing that could prevent you from getting hired. Here are some tips to help you create a high quality social media presence that will match your resume.
1. Present yourself on your Profiles as you would in a Job Interview - Unfortunately a lot of applicants are turned down because they have an unprofessional picture of themselves, or a random object, or worse even leave it blank on their social media profiles. A picture alone says a lot about you. You absolutely must upload a professional picture of yourself and keep it constant. Meaning- the same neat picture must be uploaded in your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and any other account you have.
2. Your Profile Description is Just as Valuable as your Resume - You are not only going to want to tell your story, telling how you got to where you are now and what your passions are. However, you must list your contact, educational and past work experience on your Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn profiles. You may have some employers that you apply to not even look through a hard copy of your resume and will go right to your social media profiles to read up on you. Make sure you are prepared for that.
3. Never Lie - If you state on your profiles you had worked at a particular company or went to a particular school even though you never did, anyone can find out the truth and if you are caught in a lie about your experience or anything else, you will not be looked at again.
4. Keep your Content Clean - Always make sure you never put out anything on your networks that you may regret later. Never spread out complaints, never say anything negative behind anyone's back as it will be easily discovered- not even a competitor of the employer you had applied to that you did work for! Never post sexual, political, religious or offensive content of any kind. Do not ever post racial or discriminatory remarks even if you mean to be "cute". Not only will you present a professional image on your profile description, however you must maintain that during your social media activities.
5. Remember that Nothing is Private - If you go to a party, just remember that if you decide to drink too much- there is a huge risk a picture of you drunk will go viral and that will hurt your chances at getting that job. You will need to remember what you do offline spills online and vise versa, and use common sense.
6. Never Become Troll Bait - Unfortunately there are people who enjoy picking fights with others online. If you come across one of those people, it is in your best interest to ignore, report and block them. If you are fighting with someone online, that will hurt your chances of getting that job. Respectable debates are fine, in fact encouraged as it shows you are a good thinker and communicator, and stand by your beliefs. However, outrageous fighting will be harmful to your reputation.
7. Speak Professionally - Use proper language, and never use curse words. And NeVr speeeeek lke this!! In other words, always use proper communication at all times.
8. Remain Interactive and Grow your Network - It is vital that when you are developing a positive social media presence that you interact with others who are interacting with you. Answer questions they ask and show interest in them. You will maintain a strong online presence, as well as grow your network- meaning, you may connect with someone who knows a great employer hiring and you could be the one that his/her connection is looking for!
9. Hook your Networks to Klout - What is Klout? It is a social media analytics system that measures your influence and online presence by giving a user a score from 1-100 (the Klout score) based on engagement and activity. More and more employers are looking at the Klout score of applicants- in fact some employers will not hire anyone with a score that is lower than a particular number, especially for marketing positions or any field that involves use of social media. The average score is 40 and anything over 63 is considered elite.
If you are applying for a job and you have a decent Klout score, squeaky clean profiles, positive online and offline presence, as well as a well written resume, you will land a job.
About the company...
At Social Hire, we don't just do social.
Our digital marketing managers are the wizards that can give you the insight you need to grow your business. Have you had enough of making complex personnel choices that don't work well for your online marketing?
Our group of specialists are an organisation that helps our clients boost their online marketing by offering social media management services on a monthly basis.
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